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Ahh Well... 'Now we are out of the cup, we can concentrate on the league...' may be the cliché but the truth is, this was a truly awful performance from Canvey Island and they deserve to be out of the FA Cup. Slough, on the other hand, can feel proud of their performance this afternoon and, in spite of being in a league lower than their opponents, they were truly the better team. Good luck in the next round (who are Harrogate Railway anyway?). If Canvey Island FC held the office of Secretary of State for Education, then following Estelle Morris's example, half of them would have walked off the pitch well before half-time today, in resignation, recognising that they were not good enough to do the job. There can be no excuse for players who so obviously lack pace and are beaten to the ball regularly; for players who fight shy of tackles and let attack after attack through or for players who simply can't distribute a ball, so that hardly any attacking situations get set up. This was not the usual Canvey, not the team that we know and love so well. Jeff King must have felt the same as he said on BBC Essex afterwards, "We scored in the 4th minute, and after that we were atrocious...some players will be leaving us now over the next week or two... I am not sure if it is arrogance or apathy... but some players have played their last game for this club." He did not sound too happy. It all started so well for Canvey and the Ryman boys, with an FA Cup pedigree second to none, went ahead after only four minutes. Fans welcomed the early goal and hoped that, after a couple of disappointing performances recently, today might be the day. It all started from a Ross Johnson throw-in that found its way through to Jeff Minton on the right of the 18yd box. A superb piece of football allowed him to beat his man before screwing the ball back to Scott Forbes who was rushing into the penalty area. He met the ball perfectly just 12yds out and Zepherin stood no chance. One - nil up and greater things to come? Sadly, it was not to be. The Man of the Match for any neutral in the ground had to be Slough's No. 7 Byron Bubb. He was quick, he always had space and his distribution from the right flank was faultless. In reply to Canvey's early goal he almost set up Tony Boot on 16 minutes when he ran through the Canvey defence like a knife through butter and sent in a great ball for the No. 10 to attack Danny Potter's goal. Fortunately for Canvey the shot was just too high, but it was an early warning for the visitors that the home team was going to make a game of it. But it didn't take too long for Slough to get back onto level terms and it was Tony Boot who did the honours. It came from another good cross, this time from the left and, finding himself in an unmarked position just a few yards out, he hammered home to bring Slough back to even stevens. Up to this point both teams were evenly matched and they both looked dangerous whenever they got into the danger area. Sad truth is, Slough were getting into the Canvey danger area more regularly than the visiting supports would have wanted. But fate did deal Canvey an unfortunate hand when Craig Davidson turned a cross into his own net. It happened on 37 minutes and yet another cross came in from the left, this time from Michael Gilkes, and it was low, hard and fast. So fast that when Crow got a foot to it, hoping to clear, it spun away and past the helpless Danny Potter. Slough suddenly found themselves in the lead. One of the Canvey's problems this season appears to be the fact that they are so predictable. In previous seasons it has been hard to predict the way 'ball to foot' play might go. The magic of fast, one-touch football (someone called it sexy football on this website a while ago), playing on the deck has opened up so many defences because they never knew which way the ball was coming next. But this season so far the way forward has been to put a high ball forward for Neil Gregory to knock down to his supporting striker. The answer to this style of play has been to mark Greggers out of the game and that will render most of the Canvey attack useless. This is what happened this afternoon. Time after time a high ball came forward but was simply intercepted by either Browne or Barrowcliffe and... that was that. With very little support from either wing, attacks on Zepherin's goal were few and far between. Forbes did come forward occasionally but, on the other side, Chris Duffy was not having his best of games. Perhaps there is a lot more to come from the talented Duffers - but it certainly didn't come today. Half time Slough Town 2 Canvey Island 1 It was Duffers who almost got onto the scoresheet within a couple of minutes of the restart and, like so many of Canvey's dangerous moves, it came about from a Johnson throw-in. The ball came forward to Duffy but his shot, although accurate, wasn't powerful enough and Zepherin collected easily. But in spite of this save from Zepherin, it was Danny Potter who was working the hardest at the other end. On several occasions he was there with timely stops to keep Slough out. It was on 51 minutes when he pulled off a superb save from Michael Gilkes from the edge of the box. Slough were now having their best session of the game. They came out with their tails in the air and threw everything forward. Canvey were playing a defensive role and, with the wing-backs busy defending, there was precious little happening at the other end. Slough forced five corners in as many minutes and things were looking bad for the Gulls. They just couldn't get a grip on the game. Whereas the Slough midfield were able to collect the ball, step on it and dictate the pace and direction of the game, the Canvey midfield was being by-passed by a defence that was under pressure and could only hump long balls upfield where they would be met by a well organised Slough defence who would, in reply, push the ball forward to the feet of the midfield and the cycle would start all over again. Rarely did Canvey deviate from this pointless game-plan. The result began to look inevitable. Lee Boylan was Canvey's most effective forward and he was unlucky on several occasions. On the hour he found himself just inside the Slough penalty area but he was bundled off the ball (yet another infringement that the referee, Mr Deadman, failed to notice) although he did manage to knock it forward to John Kennedy who was on the edge of the 6yd box. Unfortunately the bad bounce eluded JK and he just couldn't connect. He did make a stab at the ball but it ended up going into the side netting. At this point Canvey made a substitution and it surprised many visiting fans to see Lee Protheroe called off in favour of Bertie Brayley. Certainly Canvey needed Brayley's energy and chase, but the fans standing around me all agreed that there were other players who were more obvious candidates to make way for him. As it happened, this proved to be an inspired substitution as only one minute later, with almost his first touch of the ball, Bertie came up trumps with a cracker of a goal, the result of another deathly Johnson long throw-in. It was a good goal for Canvey but one must have sympathy with the home fans who felt it was slightly against the run of play. Slough kept up the pressure on Potter's goal and he was called upon to make several terrific saves. But not only was Potter proving to be a good shot stopper, his distribution of the ball was always both quick and accurate. From this he was able to set up several Canvey chances. His kicking was once again faultless - even though some of the back-passes sent his way were a tad suicidal. Slough's winner - and it was well deserved - came in the 76th minute when Tony Boot got his head to a good cross from Gilkes and, with a fair degree of good fortune, saw it go past Potter, onto the far post before going into the net. There were opportunities for Canvey to get back to level terms but, in reality, they had little answer to a superior Slough outfit. Their passing was slick and accurate, they had a well organised midfield and they fought harder for every ball. We all know that the FA Cup is designed to bring the best out of the underdog (haven't Canvey benefited from this phenomenon often enough in the past?) but the sad thing about today's performance is that so few Canvey players appeared to want it. Whereas Slough fought for every ball, Canvey sat back and waited for it to come to them as a right. It's time some players realised that, in the FA Cup, the big team simply does not have any rights. There will be no Port Vale away win this year. No BBC cameras at Park Lane. No upsets at the JJB Stadium. But at least there will be the opportunity to concentrate on the league. Well, that's my hope! Match Report by Merv. Teams
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